TV: Entertainment Tattoo tidbits » Tips, tricks, and considerations for getting inked Bex Peterson Editor-in-Chief attoos have become something of a mainstream phenomenon in the past few decades—which is honestly great. I love my tattoos a lot and I have only had good experiences getting them, and I really want that for everyone who decides to go under the needle. With that in mind, here’s some advice to consider for your first tattoo. Do your research I have friends who got their first tattoo by just walking into a shop, picking a flash they liked, and walking out freshly inked ona whim. These friends are braver and stronger than me and should be both feared and respected. However, if you’ve never gotten a tattoo before, I highly recommend researching everything—and I mean everything. Research the artist, research the reputation of the shop they work out of, research the recovery time and tattoo aftercare methods, research, research, research! This will not only prepare you so you know what to expect but also give you an edge in terms of being able to identify a shady situation before you drop money on a bad tattoo. Tattoos aren't cheap! Trust me—you don’t want a cheap tattoo. If an artist is offering to tattoo you for under $120 to 200 an hour and they aren't an apprentice, really examine that artist’s portfolio. Odds are there’s a reason why they’re lowballing the price. Think of it this way: A good tattoo is something that will stick with you for life. This is one of those few things youre literally doing entirely for yourself and your own self- image. You deserve a tattoo that’s going to stand the test of time and make you feel good for as long as you live, and that kind of investment doesn’t—and shouldn’t—come cheap. y Pick an artist by competence and style 1 like to spend hours looking through tattoo artists’ portfolios, and I usually look for two things: Overall competency and whether their style lines up with what I want on my body. Competency- wise, you want to look for clean lines (lines that are smooth instead of jagged and without “blow- outs’”—splotches of ink caused by inconsistent needle depth) and tattoo composition (how the tattoo works with the shape of the body). The style part is up to you, of course, but | really recommend keeping in mind what a tattoo artist’s speciality is. If all you see in an artist’s portfolio is realism and greyscale work, they're not going to be too excited about getting a request for a full-colour watercolour geometric piece. Keep in mind how tattoos age depending on ink and placement Some of the current tattoo trends— white tattoos, watercolour tattoos, et cetera—look pretty when fresh, but tend to age poorly. White ink, for example, often turn yellow with age, and watercolour tattoos can fade into splotchy, bruise-like messes. Tattoo placement will also affect how the tattoo ages. Finger tattoos, in particular, fade to almost nothing very quickly. If you're willing to put in the time and money for upkeep and refresh your tattoo time and time again, that’s absolutely an option; I don’t want to scare people off getting the tattoos they want! But it’s important to know what you're getting into in the long run. Listen to your artist! Your tattoo artist will know more about tattoos then you will ever learn from googling (or at least, they should). Your artist will tell you if your tattoo design is too small, if you're getting a tattoo upside- down (yes, that’s a thing), or if your tattoo placement needs adjusting due to how your body moves and ages. It might feel scary taking advice on something so personal, especially if you've set your mind on the tattoo looking a certain way. But believe me, your artist only has your best interests at heart. Prepare for some flexibility when you go into your consultation and it'll pay off in the long run. Tattoos are a medical procedure and should be treated as such This is why research is so important—you want to know that the shop you go into is clean and has a good record for safety and sanitization. Tattoos are literally a kind of open wound; your tattoo artist will know and respect this, and it’s important that you do too. Take their aftercare instructions seriously. Keeping a tattoo clean and dry not only promotes faster and better healing for an ideal finished product but can keep you from getting the sort of nasty infection that naysayers use as cautionary tales against tattoos in the first place. Don’t get a tattoo right before a beach vacation, keep it out of the sun, and for the love of God, when it gets itchy, smack it—don’t scratch it! < Photo by Bex Peterson; Ai Tattoo by Kass at Adrenaline or distraction? » A speculation on the bigger picture Morgan Hannah Life & Style Editor ow many hours do you spend watching TV a day? A week? C'mon, be honest! What with Netflix and endless channels to surf through on cable, the options really are endless, and watching television is an inexpensive, low- commitment activity that many people indulge in on a weekly if not daily basis. In fact, according to the New York Times, the average American watches more than five hours of TV per day—that’s a minimum of 35 hours per week, and there are only 168 hours in a week! You may be thinking, “Well, what’s the big deal? That sounds like a lot of extra hours to me.” Take into consideration that youre probably asleep anywhere from 35 to 56 of those hours, youre at work or school—or both—likely for a whopping 40 of those hours, and you're commuting somewhere around three and a half to 14 hours. That only leaves anywhere from 23 to 54 hours left per week, again going by the above-mentioned numbers, which are merely my ideas of what a typical individual’s week might look like. That doesn’t even take into account homework time, chores, household responsibilities, and any other obligations or activities you might have going on. I guess you could be thinking about how youre a student or you're not making as much money as youd like, and therefore you can't really afford to do too much else—I mean, have you seen the prices of gas? So what’s the harm in spending so much time in front of the ol’ tube? As it turns out—and this is not fresh news— watching too much TV is kinda bad for your brain. According to the results of a 2015 study on the television-watching habits of 3,200 young adults, those who watched three hours or more television per day scored poorly on cognitive tests in comparison to those who watched very little. Healthy brains require physical activity, rather than just sitting around with your eyes trained ona screen, said study author Tina D. Hoang of the Northern California Institute for Research and Education at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco. The study theorizes that the link between lots of television time and poor cognitive performance may be due to spending time in a non-cognitively engaging way. Another hypothesis is that the poor performance may be caused by the decline in physical activity that accompanies watching TV. One thing that is glaringly obvious and potentially overlooked is that what we watch influences who we are and what we believe, and that’s not always a good thing. According to pioneering linguist and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky, our TV-watching instills in us the agenda of a totalitarian state. Ordinary working-class folks “ought to be sitting alone in front of the TV and having drilled into their heads the message, which says, the only value in life is to have more commodities or live like that rich middle-class family youre watching and to have nice values like harmony and Americanism,’ wrote Chomsky in his 2002 book Media Illustration by Cara Seccafien Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda. Chomsky stated that TV is largely used as a propaganda streaming service directly from our television sets to our brains in order to instill values in us that may not be our own, as well as subconsciously determining for us how we spend our money and live our lives. With so much time spent in front of the TV, it’sa fairly effective propaganda tool. Chomsky’s words have darker implications as well. He suggests that the general public must have their attention turned elsewhere because if we were to wake up and have thoughts and opinions on what is going on in our world, rather than what we are selectively shown, that would be a problem for those whose goal it is to keep us distracted. Without distraction, we might then realize the bigger picture, which is that television is a cleverly adopted source of addictive entertainment-gone-advertisement meant to keep us docile and uninterested in those who have the real power, the “specialized class,” as Chomsky refers to them—those who shape our society as the real authority sees fit. Consider the possibility that leaders, or the specialized class, are appointed to give us the illusion of control within our society, which is exactly what a higher power with their own interests in mind would want us to think, regardless of whether those interests align with the greater good of the people or not. This illusion of autonomy allows those in charge to do as they wish from behind the scenes, or screens—television screens that is, “mak[ing] sure that [the people] remain at most spectators of action, occasionally lending their weight to one or another of the real leaders,” wrote Chomsky. But that’s just an opinion; it’s the opinion of a very smart and influential man, a view that is also shared by a number of people ranging from speculative theorists to experts alike. What is your opinion? Do you think that television is just an addictive source of entertainment that may have negative effects on an individual's cognitive performance, or do you believe that there may be something darker, a distraction from the bigger picture, at work? Either way, it is important to find a healthy balance of activities, work, sleep, and entertainment in life, as well as to get involved and be more than just an observer or spectator.